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Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Video Studio

After a short break to celebrate Thanksgiving with family, I'm back to work on a new eCourse on cross-knit looping, which I'll tell you more about soon. In the meantime, here's a peek at my new video "studio."

The homemade diffuser on the left is fabric stretched on an old picture frame. On the right is an old slide projector screen I found at the thrift shop. The white top on the card table (a family heirloom from the 70's) is easier for shooting than the fabric-covered table I used before. You can't really see the fabric backdrop or the two bounce lights. But here's the key element:

That black tent-like thing at the top covers a modeling lamp that gives diffused light from overhead. A friend who's a professional photographer helped me set up a photo studio back in the late 1990's, when I was still shooting my work on 35mm slides. I think we traded her a canoe for equipment, help setting it up, and lessons on how to shoot with it. Once I went digital, the flash didn't sync with my camera. It didn't occur to me until recently (duh) that I could use the modeling lamp without the flash.

The new set-up is tucked into a small space in our basement between the utility room and the cold room where we store squash and homemade wine. There isn't quite enough space to shoot the short "talking head" segments of the course, but it's working great for the close-up shots of my hands demonstrating techniques.

Speaking of hands, I stained my right hand with black walnut dye when my glove sprung a leak while I was doing "just a quick project." So no more dyeing until the last of the video is shot and edited!